In a dark place without any lights...

?: "Ah… Ah—"

*Tick, tick*

...A voice could be heard reasoning through it, along with a few mechanical sounds...

?: "AHHH~ ...Good, the mic is working. It's soon the time to start, so can someone switch on the light?"

?: "Th-The light?! Y-Yes ma'am! Please wait a second! H-However, where was it again…? I-I can't see it at all..."

?: "Well, well, well… Wasn't it there~?"

?: "Kyaah...?!"

?: "Oops, sorry, sorry, sorry… So it was there, instead~?"

?: "Eeek…?!"

?: "Why the heck are you even touching her for?! There's no way that the switch button would be on her body! Go search on the wall instead!"

?: "Shut up, you swine. Be grateful that I can't even see you in all this darkness, thanks to that you won't get turned into roasted pork."

?: "Pugooo?! How dare you! Take that, ROLLING HAM ATTACK—!"

*CRASH, BAM, BOOM!*

?: "Pugyaa?!"

?: "...That swine… to think that he tried to attack even though he couldn't see at all without the lights on… and as expected he completely missed and even crashed into somewhere else…"

?: "Th-That's terrible! What if he got himself hurt?! We must quickly go and help him…!"

?: "No, no, no, you're staying there. Can't have you to get yourself lost and hurt too, right? But knowing that pig, he should be fine. I'm more worried about whatever he ended up breaking on the way though..."

?: "...*Sigh*..."

*Tap, tap, tap… Click, CLACK!*

Suddenly the lights switches on… and a chibi-Trista is shown on the screen, in front of her was a desk present, just like one of those that the presenter of the news have when they are passing on TV.

Trista facepalms herself and sighs as she shake her head in a tired manner.

Trista: "*Sigh*... Of course if I were to ask anything non-combat related to those guys, it would only end up like that… If I knew this beforehand, I wouldn't have asked anything and instead do everything myself."

Chibi-Meliodas pop his head out from the side of the screen.

Meliodas: "Triss, Triss, Triss… You know that you're already on screen right?"

Trista (a tick mark appeared on her forehead): "If you truly thinks so then please just stay off of the screen, just by having you there would create another catastrophe!"

Trista is dragging Meliodas away by pulling his ahoge, the two go out of the screen, leaving the room empty.

Meliodas: "Ow, ow, ow! It hurts, Triss, it hurt! I'm against violence!"

Trista: "As if you who always physically abuse a pig can say such things!"

...However such sounds are not being cut off at all during a few minutes…

*CRASH, CLING, CLANG!*

...Along with those other sounds too… and after a while of relaxing music and photos replacing the earlier censored sounds and scenes

Elizabeth: "P-Please excuse me…"

Chibi-Elizabeth took Chibi-Trista's earlier place on the screen, a shy and nerveux look on her face as she directed her gaze towards the camera.

Elizabeth: "I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Trista-san is… err… that is… well, she is actually busy about some matters with Meliodas-sama, so I would temporarily act as her replacement for today. I-I am not sure if someone like me would be able to do this presentation correctly, but I will still do my best, so…"

*CRASH, CLANG, BOOM!*

"Cut it out, Meliodas!"

"Only if you stop first Triss!"

"Pugyaa?! Why am I getting dragged in this too?!"

Elizabeth: "..."

A moment of awkward silence, there was no need to say to whose those voices belonged to, and it seems that the censuring didn't made it in time to cover the damages they were currently making…

Elizabeth (laughing nervously): "Ahaha… Please don't mind it. Ahem, now let me begin the introduction."

She takes out some papers present on the desk and read them in her mind before putting it back on the desk when she had most of it memorized.

Elizabeth: "On this day, we would like to thanks every readers for reading, following and favorising this story up until now. It had been decided by the author that there would be a side story chapter around every 10 chapters, and exceptionally the ones who would do the usual A/N done by the author would be us instead, chibis of our original versions in the story. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused and for the readers who were hoping another chapter of the main story. However please stay assured, the side stories always have a relation with the main one, especially today's as it is a 'what happened in-between' and we would be immediately be passing to the next arc after this, so it may not be considered fully as a side story, but… both us and the author hopes that you will enjoy it!"

And then on the screen behind her, such words appeared...

'Nanatsu no Taizai and their characters belongs to their original author Nakaba Suzuki-sensei, only the original plot of this fanfic and the main OC present belong to Welt Ende-san.'

After a bow to the spectators, Elizabeth walked off outside of the screen with a large smile on her face.

Elizabeth: "I am so glad that I managed to pull it off! I was so nervous, and—Wah, KYAA?!"

*CRASH!*

...And she fell thanks to her usual clumsiness when the lights turned off once again, because of that another furniture got broken. The screen begin to shine and grow large, with the music starting suddenly from nowhere, until...


Side Story 1: Interlude in Between


"NO WAAAAY—?! You're the voice from Merlin's crystal baaaall?! I always thought that you were a granny~!" A loud male sing-song voice reasoned through the Dalmary Town, making the building from where it came jump a few meters away from the ground before landing back on it (which should have originally been impossible).

Trista's eyebrow twitched slightly before she opened her eyes and glared at the cause of the unneeded loud noise in front of her. "Well I am sorry for not being the granny that you wished for."

There was a very tall and muscular man with short spiky pale blue hair and red eyes, wearing a red leather jacket and pants with metal studs sewn into both alongside shoes of a similar, yet darker color. He also has a large scar on the left side of his jaw and extending down to his neck.

Yes, it was none other than the Fox's Sin of Greed, also known as Undead Ban, a member of the Seven Deadly Sins and the one who was held prisoner at the Baste Dungeon, yet who managed to break out of it on his own without anybody's help.

Seriously, if so why didn't he did so from the beginning? It could have saved them up a lot of time, and since he could already do it on his own to begin with it, there was no need to go and save him at all, was there? It felt like they had did quite a wasted trip…

Trista's response didn't fazed him much, on the contrary he just laughed even louder much to her annoyance, his sharp teeths were shining brightly when his mouth was wide open, "Ahaha! But that sassy attitude is definitively the saaame! Who know that you were actually a little girl all this tiiime~? Despite your small voice, your voice is deep, man!"

"...I see. Would you want this 'little girl' to turn you into minced meat, then?" There was no hint of joke in Trista's voice, or rather it was hard to know when she was even joking or not, she is saying things in such a serious or indifferent manner that it's even difficult to believe that she can joke.

Ban grinned wider at this as his eyes held a dangerous glint, "Hooohhh… I'd like to see you trying thaaat, Little Miss…"

It was as if tendrils of electricity seemed to travel back and forth between them. The air grew thick with tension and dark, as if their auras seemed to clash with one another, as the two never left each other's gaze. They were like two beasts that were circling each other, both (predators?) refusing to yield to the other, to the point where you could almost hear them growling…

"Here, it's enough, both of you!"

*Bam, BANG!*

"Ow…"

"ARRGH?!"

Yes, before the two of them were stopped by our favorite blond-haired and green-eyed mini-barmaster, who before they even noticed it, put himself between the two of them and flicked Trista's forehead before punching Ban on the nose, making the girl yelp(?) slightly in surprise and the man groan in pain, being thrown backward before landing on the ground.

Not even a second after that, Ban immediately jumped up back on his feets before glaring, with his nose bruised and bleeding, at his captain who did this. "WHAT THE HELL, CAP'N~?! This difference of treatment, isn't it unfaaair?!"

Meliodas just shrugged nonchalantly at his best friend's antics, "Even I, am enough of a gentleman, to not harm directly a woman's face."

"So it's fine to hurt me more insteaaad?!"

"You're definitely not a woman, besides you already had worse many times before? You can at least handle something small of this level."

"Well, it's true that compared to our usual brawls, it can't be even considered as a wound…" The bruise and blood on Ban's face had already disappeared as if they were just an illusion.

Meliodas and Ban usually challenge each other at almost everything, wherever it's about hitting each other or a drinking contest, at every occasion possible. The consequences end up with both of them covered in wounds from the head to the toe no matter who was the winner, and because of the power of the Fountain of Youth flowing through his blood, Ban was healing much faster than Meliodas who is known for his great durability.

He never complained about his injuries and instead often laughed at how bad they could get sometimes, yet why was he throwing a tantrum over such a small thing? Not that his tantrum was long, it was already over with his earlier frown and sudden raise of voice gone and back to him smiling in a silly manner again.

Trista then rubbed her slightly red forehead, her earlier surprise of his sudden act was gone and she was now back at her usual flat expression. "...A gentleman, you are one, huh?" She repeated his words, in a sarcastic tone as if she was mocking him.

"...Are you trying to imply something again, Triss?" Meliodas raised his eyebrows dangerously as he directed his full attention on her, or rather what she may say next. His next actions would also depend on her following words.

The girl, however, remained unfazed as always as she uttered those same words that would seal her fate, totally unaware of the effect they would bring, "Knowing you, hitting a woman in the face would be really easy, you only act as a gentleman when a certain lady is watching, when she isn't here you probably won't care about how many women you—OW!"

*BANG!*

He had enough of listening to her so before she could even finish whatever she would keep on saying, he slammed his fist on the top of her head… Wherever she was actually right or not, he would rather not confirm it, especially if a certain silver-haired princess may be watching him… and this certainly doesn't confirm anything at all, yeah.

He then looked down and stared at his fist in slight confusion. '...However I'm not sure if hitting her head should make such a sound…' For some reason when he hits her, there was a strangely loud and reasoning metallic sound… was this actually his imagination? Or actually, her head did felt pretty hard, was that normal? He looked up to see Trista, in front of him, holding her head with both her hands, surprisingly no bump was present over the place he punched.

"...I have been injured." She murmured like this, but her words and expression weren't matching up at all, it was as if she was doing some kind of really bad and unmotivated acting. Or rather, can she actually feel the pain? He was never sure of it with how she hardly show her emotions. When Meliodas was about to say something about this…

"AHAHAHA!" Until Ban's loud laughter started again. He then walked towards Trista before starting to tap her loudly (with 'PAF, PAF' sounds reasoning) on the head with a huge grin on his face, "To even make Cap'n irritated so easily like thaaat, you're sure an interestin' one, aren't yaaa Lil' Miss~?"

"I am not, and stop doing that." Trista slapped Ban's hand away, but it didn't stopped the thief, on the contrary as he started to ruffle her hair too strongly, making it look all disheveled. "C'mooon~, don't say that, I'm sure we're gonna get along fine, so let's mess around with Cap'n together, 'kaaaay?"

Trista's eyebrow twitched once again before she returned Ban's grin with an harsh glare, "We are not, and let go of me already!"

Meliodas just decided to watch them from the sidelines, slight amusement on his face. He was slightly relieved that Ban didn't disliked Trista despite the latter's sassy attitude, after all because of his past he hardly trusted people easily, so it was great to have people around to whom his best friend could genuinely smile to, no matter if the other party likes it or not. But the thought about those two ganging up together against him was not something he would like though.

"Fufu…" A small and soft giggle could be heard from behind him.

Immediately recognizing it, Meliodas turned to the source of it and asked without even the need to check it twice, "Sorry for the ruckus Elizabeth, did they ended up bothering you?"

The princess of Liones was sitting on the nearby sofa of the balcony, with a suddenly really chatty Diane by her side, though she was outside of the building since she couldn't fit inside (before they even knew it, the two warmed up to each other and started to talk as if they were old friends, the giantess' previous hostility towards the princess was completely gone).

"No, it is alright Meliodas-sama, it didn't bothered me at all. On the contrary, it seem to be quite lively instead." Elizabeth answered with a gentle smile on her face.

Seeing her smiling made Meliodas smile at his turn as he shrugged his earlier's concern before making sign to Ban to stop his chat with Trista and approach, and once he was close enough…

"Well then… Elizabeth. I'll introduce him again, this is the Fox's Sin of Greed, Ban."

"'ellooooo~ Nice to meet ya~" Ban grinned as he gave a slight wave, sitting on the top of an ale filled barrel in, his legs crossed in a quite impolite manner, his right feet being raised on his left thigh.

However Meliodas raised an eyebrow at the attire the former (or still) thief was wearing. "Hm? Where did those clothes come from?" Indeed, he was wearing a red leather jacket and pants with metal studs sewn into both alongside shoes of a similar, yet darker color. Clothes that he didn't had earlier when they met him at the Baste Dungeon when he was only wearing a pair of really used trousers.

Ban just grinned with a smile as he answered as if it was the most evident of the things, "How could I be naked in front of a princess~?"

Indeed his words weren't false and indeed, it made sense (which was rare coming from such a senseless person like him), but this wasn't what Meliodas wanted to ask, so instead he patiently reformed his question. "How did you have money to buy clothes?"

After all Ban was a prisoner for those 10 last years, and before he was put into that cell of his, every single of his personal belonging should have been confiscated, so for him to have enough money hidden on him to even buy a set of clothes (which hardly fits his size) is logically impossible, and for the Holy Knights who treated him so horribly to even lend him some was even less plausible… Only the possibility of him stealing from them before rejoining Meliodas' group was the only way but if so there would be no way for Meliodas to not notice it.

"I just happened to find them lying arooound."

'...And of course it there wasn't more of an obvious lie. But that's explain why he went on a separate way from us before going back to Dalmary.' Meliodas thought so as he closed his eyes and held back a sigh, he didn't knew who was the victim that Ban beat up and stole the clothes from but he gave a mental apology to the poor man that accidentally and unfortunately caught Ban's attention (or at least his clothes did).

Unaware of his captain having such thoughts (surely because of his perfect pokerface), Ban hopped off from the barrel and walked a bit towards Diane, his hands resting on his hips, the smile never leaving his lips. "By the way, it's been a whiiile, Diane."

Diane however, didn't returned his enthusiastic greeting back and just turned her head on the side and avoiding his gaze before closing her eyes and sighed deeply, "And I would have be fine without seeing you for a hundred of years." She didn't even bothered to hide her obvious dislike of him neither did she sugarcoated her words for a 10 years long reunion, but Ban just didn't cared about that and laughed it off, "Ahaha! C'mon, don't be so cooold~!"

"Cut it out!" ...And he received the same answer as he did with Trista… not that he cared about it or anything.

Upon seeing them interacting with each other in such a friendly(?) atmosphere, Elizabeth felt slightly awkward and uncomfortable about being one of the only strangers among those people who were familiar with each other since a long time (before she knew it Trista already mixed among them?).

'...No, I decided to be more decisive! I must stop hesitating like this!' She already decided to be a more positive and optimist herself from now on! Besides all the Sins she met up until now were actually good people who didn't fits the rumors surrounding them, perhaps it was only Ban's look that was scary, it's not like he was truly one of those bad wolves who would capture and eat children she had read in those picture books in her past.

So she took a deep breath and stood up before walking closer to Ban, interrupting his talk with Diane, greeting him with a bow and a polite smile on her face. "My name is Elizabeth. I apologize for meeting you in such a sorry state back then." She hoped that her voice didn't trembled too much and that she wasn't showing any signs of weaknesses.

By the way what she meant about is that when they have finally met Ban at the Baste Dungeon, Elizabeth couldn't bear her physical exhaustion any further and collapsed, worrying everyone on the place. Because of this, Meliodas became more worried about her condition then about happily enjoying a reunion challenge with his impatient fellow male Sin.

Which caused Ban to stir up a fight between them to get things more fired up, Meliodas who threw himself wholeheartedly in it in order to finish it quickly and take care of Elizabeth, with Ban answering with full-hearted enthusiasm and joy, and before it was back at Meliodas and then back at Ban, and before they have noticed, the building of Baste Dungeon was already in ruins around them, with everything having fell apart.

(Of course the unconscious Elizabeth was entrusted in Diane's careful hands, and so was Cenette, the daughter of Dr. Dana who managed to escape and fainted too, upon being astonished by Ban and Meliodas' brawl. Trista, her, could take care of herself, and Hawk was sturdy enough to survive a fall of those few meters at least).

However much to her surprise, Elizabeth didn't received any of the former's thief's snarky remarks as he had put a hand over his chest before bowing to her like she did to him as he spoke with polite words she didn't believed him capable of. "Not at all, Your Highness. We, Sins, don't care about such formalities. I hope the four of us can get along."

"There's six of us!" Suddenly a high-pitched voice was heard.

"...? …?" Ban looked up in confusion, searching for the source of the voice, before his eyes landing on Trista and gave her a grin, "Oops, sorry 'bout that, Lil' Miss, completely forgot about you there. So it makes five of us, then. But why six then?"

"I didn't said anything though." Trista answered without missing a beat, but before Ban could ask what she meant, Meliodas spoke in her turn, "There are really six of us."

"What are you talking about, Cap'n? There's only five of us…"

Once again Ban heard this voice, and this time the words were far longer. "This guy's such a nut-job. After getting separated from his team, he goes and lets himself get thrown in prison. For fun! And then breaks out the moment he hears his comrades are still alive… leaving the place in the process. You sure he doesn't have a screw or two loose?"

Feeling slightly annoyed at the criticism that were said to him by someone he just met (and still couldn't see), Ban's gaze turned cold and menacious as he glared down at the source that he finally identified which was downward, at his feets as he asked dangerously, "Who said that?"

However what awaited for him was totally unexpected…

"Me (pugo, pugo)!" The unexpected taking the shape of a round and pink pig, puffing air from its nostrils with a proud look and smirk on his face.

For one minute of silence where Ban just stared blankly at Hawk and Hawk just stared back at Ban...

"A TALKING PIG?!" And the moment of silence was interrupted by Ban who made an incredulous/incredible expression as he opened his eyes and jaw so wide that it should be normally impossible, the veins in his eyeballs were clearly visible and his eyes were so wide that it seemed they would end up popping out of their sockets, his mouth so wide that every single of his teeths could be seen from the front to even the ones hidden behind, and wow, they are sure sharp…!

"Why are you shocked about this by now?!" Hawk retorted as Ban jumped behind of several meters away from him, as if he was distancing himself of something incredibly creepy and it felt utterly insulting!

Hawk considered himself to be the handsomest pig that everybody admired (though only Elizabeth shared this thought) so the idea of someone acting as if he was repulsive truly hurt his pure piggy heart and pride! Okay he can understand if someone were shocked right after he just met them, but what with that few hours decaled reaction?! Didn't they all walked back together since the Baste Dungeon?!

"A pig that can speak like a person?! That's absurd! I thought you were Diane's meal!"

Hawk endured the imaginary arrows that were stabbing at him mercilessly, being created by Ban's words before he had enough of trembling of anger and shouted out his annoyance at this repetitive misunderstanding, "Why do people assume I'm just for eating all the time?!"

'It's surely because Meliodas always threatens to turn me into roasted pork!' Yeah, everything is his fault! But if this Ban is so ignorant, then Hawk wouldn't mind telling him, it was always a joy to tell how great he was!

"For your information, i'm no ordinary pig! I am the leader of the Knighthood of Scraps Disposal, Hawk-sama!"

"Amazing, I've never heard anything about this!"

"And we've got one pig who started to mix up fantasy with reality." Meliodas noted with half-lidded eyes, seeing his best friend's eyes shining with interest and admiration towards that self-boasting pig. Having someone who would admire him would even boast his ego further and make him an even more pain to deal with…

"Everyone, we apologize for the wait!" Thankfully they were interrupted by a helping hand coming from outside of the conversation, who was none other than the supposedly deceased Dr. Dana who was miraculously alive and well enough to stand up, despite being previously stabbed in the heart, and at his sides, his smiling daughter Cenette was carrying multiple plates piled on each other in her hands.

"We apologize for the terrible long delay, but we are finally over with the preparation of the dinner! Now feel free to dig in!" The doctor smiled with enthusiasm as he gestured with his hand towards the long table behind him, a table filled with a great amount and variety of freshly-cooked and delicious-looking food.

The wonderful sight of it was enough to make everyone's brighten as everybody rushed towards the table, in particularly the men's sides who moved a lot physically today. Ban and Meliodas were having a race and Hawk followed them closely from behind, yelling at them to leave him some scraps.

The girl's group was more slow to the action, Elizabeth asking Diane what the latter wanted to eat so she could bring it to her since the giantess couldn't even enter with her large size, but such a problem was quickly solved when Cenette carried an enormous meat skewer, at least enough for Diane to eat with her father following closely behind her and making a barrel full of ale rolling up to her.

Diane, completely overjoyed and moved by this act of kindness towards her, seems to have completely warmed up to them and considered them as 'okay humans' like Elizabeth and started a heated girl's talk together with the latter and Cenette, Dr. Dana returned to serve the meal for the men or cook more if it weren't enough for them.

Seeing the group being clearly separated into two different parts by gender, Trista decided that she didn't wanted to be part of neither and sat on the ground, placing herself on the small place present between two furnitures.

She stared at Ban chugging down on the all the ale, Meliodas pulling Hawk hardly on the tail to keep the pig's drooling on all the food, Elizabeth and Diane chatting happily with each other. After observing them for a while, she just decided to close her eyes slowly at the moment...


"Come on~! It's been such a long time since we last saw each other, in other words the moment where a hugging scene would be needed for such a touching reunion, at least let me enjoy it for one minute!"

"I'd rather not put up with you strangling me, even if it's for one single second."

"I-It's not as if I was attacking you!"

"It didn't looked so for me, for a second, I truly feared for my life."

"Even if you are the one with the upper hand right now?!"

"Even if. Besides you truly tried to attack me."

"I-It was just that I wanted to check your reflexes since it's been a while we last saw each other, and…! Besides didn't you also did it to me in the past?!"

"...Did I?"

"You definitely did! Don't try to forget as you please and pass it for something trivial!"

"Well even if it's true, the fact that I do it to someone else don't mean that I would like the same thing to be done to me, what would you have done if it left a scar, huh?"

"How unreasonable! Are you more concerned about that than the fake explosion?!"

"Now that you say that, indeed there was this too."

"Did you forgot?!"

"...But this is who I am, unfortunately for you."

*Crack, crack…*

"OWOWOW! Please stop! I-If you continue, my face would get smaller and smaller!"

"As if I cared about such a thing."

*Squeeze*

"GYAAAAAAA!"

The scene that was currently unfolding itself in the middle of the woods near Dalmary Town can be described with many words, many among them would be for example 'weird', 'strange', 'odd' or even curious… however the only reaction that could be appropriate for it, would be surely a raised eyebrow, a frown and a mouth wide open.

After all among the green trees with the wind blowing through the leaves, there was a petite girl dressed in a gothic lolita-like outfit with long platinum hair and heterochromia eyes, dragging a woman who is bigger than her upward, with her hand crushing the latter's face and this same one holding her up. Yes, one would call this… an 'iron claw'.

...This is incredulous, it should be physically impossible taking count of the two's slight difference in height (even if the former was standing on a fallen tree's trunk), yet the petite girl managed to drag the woman upward enough to the point that the latter's feets didn't even touched the ground.

"OWOWOW! Seriously, my head's gonna crack open at this rate, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was all my fault so please forgive me—!" And so, more and more miserable-sounding chicken-like cries were coming from the taller female as she started to struggle with more strength and wide movements, still useless in the little girl's iron grip, it was incredible about how their respective positions were reversed from what it was earlier.

The girl was taken off of guard by the newcomer's sudden appearance and when the latter launched herself on her with the intention of hugging her (apparently), the former took it as an assassination attempt and counterattacked (especially after that arrow)… which led to this current situation

After a sigh, the younger girl finally think that it should be enough and let go of the older woman with a tired sigh. Said woman fell miserably on her back against the ground instead of on her feets with a 'muguu' sound, ungraceful for a woman to make.

The girl then jumped off of the trunk in a unladylike manner before staring at the woman who was still laying on the ground, her limbs spread apart as she stayed in this position, unmoving for a while.

And a few seconds after, the latter quickly jumped back on her feets and glared at the younger one with teary eyes, "It hurts!"

"Well obviously it would." The heterochromia girl answered without missing a beat, with a flat stare, stating the obvious.

"Then why couldn't you be a bit gentler?!"

"Because I made so that it would hurt."

"Isn't it worse?!"

"It isn't to me."

And so continued the exchange between an overly dramatically emotional woman and an indifferent, unfazed and poker-faced girl, each of them answered with responses befitting their respective personalities, neither wanted to yield to the other, and after a few more minutes of arguing (one-sided accusations followed by calm retorts), which eventually end up with the woman panting heavily, covered in sweat and exhausted on the ground with the girl staring still-as-ever flatly at her, refusing to show any other expression or emotion on her face.

"A-As expected, trying to reason a stubborn person like you was really a waste of time…" The woman gasped between her deep breaths, her hands and knees against the ground and her body in a kneeling position, facing her back to the girl who put her in such a state.

The latter didn't seemed to feel the least guilty about that, just answered as flatly as her stare was. "If you had realized that earlier then you wouldn't be there right now, huffing like a bull would."

"And who's fault do you think it is, who's?!"

"Yours of course, who else?" Seeing the doll-like girl answer this with so much confidence made the older one feel an irresistible envy to just bang her head against the ground and just fall unconscious instead of being forced to deal with this whole matter later on and giving up the duty of making that clueless girl understand that she was the one in the wrong.

The woman sighed as she sighed deeply in desperation, "Geez… This is why you are so uncute… which is also one of your cute sides~!" She finished as she turned around flashing a refreshing and shining smile, almost radiant, with a thumb-up towards the younger girl whose flat expression still didn't changed even by now, and neither had her sassy remarks. It was a 90° degree change coming from the former, and 0° degree change from the latter.

"You sure cheered up quickly, didn't you? If you are feeling well enough to say such stupidities, then hurry up and stand up before you get covered in mud."

"Oh, oh? What is it~? Are you perhaps worried about me~?" The woman immediately stood back up, her expression filled with energy as she teased the little girl, who…

"You? Not at all, I feel more sorry about those clothes you are wearing, aren't they made from fine material? Yet here they are covered in mud just because a klutz like you is wearing them and dirtying them." The girl deadpanned, she didn't even hesitated to say those words as she didn't even considered them as even possibly hurtful.

"So it's only about the clothes?!" The woman lost her footing and immediately fell against the ground once again in an incredulous manner. Well it's true that they ARE of high-quality, but still! Wouldn't one be more concerned about the health of the person than the state of the clothes?

This time, the girl's expression changed as her eyes widened and she noted with valuable surprise, "Oh, impressive. This time you managed to avoid that puddle of mud."

And once again, the woman stood up, as she brushed off the mud from sleeves of her kimono and sighed in a slightly teary tone, even giving up on trying to retort anything back at the doll-like girl, "Aah… In the end, clothes are more important than me, huh? It was as if you were mean on purpose, do you truly dislike me that much…?"

"Oh, you only noticed it by now? I thought that I was pretty obvious."

"Are you trying to make me cry?! Because I'll really cry, you know?!"

"Okay, I admit that maybe I went a little too far on the last one…" The girl declared so, upon seeing real tears at the corner of the woman's eyes, yet she didn't seemed to be the least remorseful once again. It was hard to believe wherever she truly meant her words but she isn't one who would say unnecessary words, and compared to her past self it could already be considered as a huge progress.

'Still, why must she be so doll-like wherever it's in appearance or personality, I wonder…? Besides it's not only at the last one that you went too far, and it certainly can't be considered as "a bit" either.' The brunette thought wryly as she picked herself up and dusted her kimono off.

"Ahem~," She faked a cough and then put a hand on her modest (almost flat) chest before opening her mouth with a wide smile, "Now, it's time for the introduction—"

"What the point of introducing yourself to someone who already know you?"

"Can you please stop interrupting me every second?!"

"Why are you even here for in the first place?"

"I'm begging you, at least please listen when people are talking!" The woman finished screaming out of her lungs and once again, started to pant heavily, trying to catch her breath so many times tired her terribly.

But knowing the girl since a long time, she also knew that the latter wouldn't listen unless she receive the answers first, or rather she wouldn't even listen if the subject wasn't worth of her interest.

So while trying to choose her words carefully, she made sure to not let any hesitation show on her face or in her voice as she spoke, "Well, since it's been a while since you didn't came for a visit, I decided instead to—"

The girl glared this time, "Go home." ...It didn't even lasted 2 seconds.

"Come on, at least listen to me until the end! I walked all this way to Britannia just to see you, you know?!"

"Which was an unneeded action. If some kind of emergency was needed then you could have contacted me in other ways than to present yourself in person."

"It wasn't a question of emergency or not, it's just… W-Why can't you be a bit more kind…? You're so cruel" And so the woman started to shed tears, the drops descending from her red eyes to her cheeks as she started to sob in a heartbreaking manner, covering her face with both her hands.

In normal times, anybody who see this would immediately regret their past attitude apologize for their previous actions, before trying to comfort the woman who was now crying like a child and try to answer to any of her actual demands in order to make it up to her.

In normal times, yes.

However it was not in one of those normal times, and moreover the other party wasn't one of those considerate people who all share this common sense and whom you would often encounter often on your road, but an abnormally rude one who doesn't hold such a concept.

And moreover, she is one who is good at recognizing lies from the truth.

Which is why this time, in contrast of her usual flat stare, she answered with a deep frown and a certain edge in her voice, "Your faking start to get on my nerves, I strongly recommend you to stop before it irritate me further." Just a single sentence of warning.

"..." And with this, the sobs coming from the woman immediately stopped. She stood there, unmoving, the sleeves of her kimono still hiding her eyes.

Originally it should have been impossible for someone to immediately stop their tears nor sobs on the instant just because someone ordered them to, even the ragged breathing stopped all together… which could only meant…

"Oh, what, so you already knew that I was lying~?" The woman lowered the sleeves of her kimono before presenting a teasing smile to the girl, all traces of tears gone as if it didn't even existed in first place as she put a finger on her chin in a cutesy manner. "But how weird, I was pretty sure that I was a good actor~"

"You don't seem one to me."

"You are just too good at detecting lies~" The woman waved off and just grinned at the girl, this time the latter seemed to have a more pensive look on her face.

"...Why did you truly came for, seriously?"

"That… is a secret for now, but at least let me tell you that I won't be leaving any soon, so be sure to prepare a room for me!" She snucked her tongue out and winked cutely, ignoring the weird look the girl had been giving her.

"Well, you'll be seeing me around very soon, I promise!"

"I'd rather having you leave, seriously."

"If you say so then I definitely won't!" She turned her back to the girl and waved without looking at her while walking away, but then she suddenly stopped.

The girl waited, raising an eyebrow at why the woman suddenly stopped herself but then noticed a change of atmosphere around the latter, but before she could ask anything about it, the woman beat her to it the first…

"Say… 'Lilliel'."

The younger girl widened her eyes at the name and reacted immediately with a glare towards the older one, "Who and how?" However the woman didn't answered her question, no matter how she waited, so she had no choice but to give up her search with a sigh.

"Don't call me by that name. ...It's Trista." The answer she received to her previous call was terribly cold and had a dangerous edge, hinting at an upcoming conflict if she were to repeat this name once again.

Realizing it, the woman tried to hold back a shiver as she once again reformuled herself. "...Then, Trista. I heard from the Wind that you were trying to help an human princess and her friends to save their kingdom..."

The woman then turned around, her expression was not like the usual cheery smile she was wearing and instead was covered by a frown as she asked in a slight unsure voice, "Are you really planning to help them save Liones Kingdom without any hidden objective…?"

"I am, after all, I feel sorry for Elizabeth but this journey, to me, it's simply..."


"—Triss? ...Are you sleeping?"

"...I'm not." Trista opened her eyes as she answered the question and looked at the person who asked her such a thing, she didn't even needed to raise her head since Meliodas crouched himself in front of her.

'How ironic…' Trista couldn't help but think so. Even if she was in a sitting position, he could still had called out to her while standing up, without the need of crouching down to meet her gaze, yet he did it, as if he was an adult interacting with a child. Truly, how ironic…

Meliodas just looked at her with his usual unchanging nonchalant expression, "Is that so? You didn't opened your eyes for a while so Elizabeth thought that you might be asleep. 'She may catch cold if she sleep in such a place without any covered while sitting on the hard and cold floor like this, could you please carry her over here, Meliodas-sama?', is what she said."

"Of course, as expected of Elizabeth, considerate as always."

"Can't deny this," Meliodas grinned, taking a short time to glance at the princess who was more far away and looked back at him curiously."

"Which attract you to her, right?"

And with those words, Meliodas's smile fell as he immediately switched his attention back to Trista, with half-lidded eyes. "...I am not one for denying anything, but is it truly necessary for you to spell it out each single time?"

"If I remember well, your comrade who often voice out the mood while it isn't necessary is absent, so I am proving some kind of replacement for him."

"Which is unneeded, and I won't thank you for it. Or rather, is that Gowther that you're talking about?" Meliodas then put a hand on his chin as he hummed in thought, his gaze cast downward, "...Or rather is that the impression you have of him? Though you aren't wrong either…"

Trista then turned her head and switched her attention to Elizabeth, who now had switched her attention to speaking with Diane. She looked pensive before she uttered those next words: "Indeed, Elizabeth's kindness and forgiveness is one of her greatest strength."

"Right?" Meliodas grinned down at Trista as if to say that 'For once we agree with each other!', but then…

"But it's also one of her greatest weakness, it can be fatal for her."

Once again Meliodas's smile disappeared and now a frown grew on his face, "Well, way to make the mood turn bad, Triss. Is praising people only to bring them down after an habit of yours?"

"I was just stating a fact," Trista crossed her arms over her legs, her knees now brought up to support her chin, "Besides it's not like I was insulting her, just a warning about how it could be a double-edged blade."

"You know what, the worst about it is that I can't even refute your words…" Meliodas scratched his head with his hand, ruffling his already messy hair further as he looked away.

Though he didn't wanted to admit it, Trista was right. Elizabeth was too pure and kind, and though there may be people who like her for it and would be touched by her forgiveness and perhaps change for the better, there are as many who would take advantage of her and try to manipulate her good intentions for their selfish needs.

But knowing Elizabeth's personality, she would surely extend her hand towards anyone who needs help, no matter what kind of person they are, the fact that she didn't even resented the Holy Knights who tried to harm her life previously was the more solid proof of all.

She can only see the good parts of people and doesn't realize their bad parts for now, if someone try to approach her with fake kindness, she may not even realize it. This was the naïvity of a sheltered princess, and something that may lead to her downfall.

And as much Meliodas wanted to protect her from anything impure in the world, he know well that her mindstate is something that need to be thrown away in order to fulfill her goal. She needed to throw away those childish ideals further and mature up. Meliodas know that he can't protect her forever from anything that try to harm her, wherever it's mental or physical, after all he who went through many failures know this better than anyone. But still…

'But still… is that wrong for me to believe that despite that, she would still be alright?' Meliodas raised his head upward, closed his eyes and breathed deeply. After all he is among the one who had always been saved by this side of hers, thanks to that he changed, and hopefully so would be the others who are like his past self.

"Still Elizabeth asked you to check up on me, huh…?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Meliodas stood up and looked down at Trista who did not meet his gaze but just looked straight ahead, at whatever she is seeing right now but he didn't, "So if she doesn't asked you to check up on me, you wouldn't approach me at all, won't you?"

He then averted his gaze from her and looked ahead, his back against the wall as he crossed his arms over his chest, "It's not true."

"I wonder if it's really so…"

"...Why are you saying that? Are you jealous or anything?"

"Who on earth is? I can't even understand what's so great about you."

"Oh? Can't you see it? I'm someone wonderful, you know?"

"...Are you seriously meaning it?"

"...To say the truth, I don't know either." This was how their exchanges went, refusing to meet each other's gazes and staring straight ahead, but still talking to each other even if they weren't facing each other.

And then suddenly Trista stood up, without even caring about cleaning her skirt neither brushing the dust on it, still refusing to face Meliodas she looked straight ahead, Meliodas too didn't turned his head to her or even looked at her, both continued to stare ahead, and…

"...I'm hungry."

"Well I hardly saw you eat anything so of course you'll be. There hardly anything left but Dr. Dana and Cenette saved up some things away from Hawk for you. Go ahead. I'll go to Elizabeth's while you're at it." And with that he left.

Trista didn't even turned to see him off, instead opting to walk towards the now nearly empty long table that was covered in food earlier, she also met up with the doctor and his daughter. Her intention was to take some food from them, thanks them and then leave.

What she didn't expected was that they would suddenly hold her hands in gratitude and thanks her with moved tears at the corner of their eyes.

"Thank you really much for saving my father's life, I already lost my mother so I don't know what I would have done if I had lost him too!"

"I heard that you were the one who treated me and brought me back to the clinic from my assistant. Even if it was for the sake of saving my daughter, I did something as horrible as poisoning one of your comrade, I don't deserve you and your friend's kindness and help but despite this, you people not only saved my daughter but you also saved my life. I can't thank you enough, truly thank you!"

"I heard from the rumors that she is apparently a witch, it explains how she managed to heal you, Dad!"

"Yeah, that's what the princess said. Let's have a better image of the witches from now on!"

"Yeah! There can be good ones as there can be bad ones."

'...Of what on earth are those people talking about?' Trista couldn't help but wonder so as she saw the father and daughter duo enjoying their own talk and lefting her out of it (not on purpose).

It seems that they misunderstand that Trista was the one who healed Dr. Dana.

However it was false, though she did brought him back, she didn't healed him. It was the act of something else, but she didn't knew what since she wasn't present during the moment. When she arrived, it was hard to notice because of the dried blood covering it but the wound was already closed, so it must have happened before her arrival.

She wanted to say so but in the end, seeing their happy faces, she couldn't say it. Of course it isn't like she was trying to steal the honor of whoever or whatever healed them but dealing with the stress that something unknown may cause that would be bad, so she didn't said it. She would later realize that she didn't even refuted them about the fact that she was a witch (because she isn't one!).

Thus after receiving some leftover food on her plate, Trista moved towards the group where Meliodas were, and for some reason it was strangely noisy. Then when she arrived, Diane who was the one with the most altitude (due to her size) saw her the first before calling out to her in an energetic manner, waving her arm back and forth even though there was hardly the need to do so taking account of how close their distances were.

"Ah, Trista! You arrived at the right time! Say something to Captain too!"

"You people are sure noisy, did something happened?"

"Don't you think that Captain is too rude?!"

Trista blinked once at Diane's words, looked at Meliodas, before looking back at the giantess and then blinking twice. "...Meliodas is always rude, is that something to be shocked about?"

"You of all people has no right to say that, Triss." Meliodas deadpanned at her with half-lidded eyes (he noticed that he often did that expression when interacting with her).

Trista then looked at him curiously, "What are you talking about?"

"Are you doing it on purpose?"

"So you are saying that I am rude?"

"You didn't even noticed?"

Did she seriously meant it?

"PWAHAHAHA!" Ban burst out of laughing, spitting out the ale in his mouth in the same moment which earned him an 'Eww!' and some further complains from Diane who stepped back in disgust (even though she was the one the most far away from him among everyone else).

Trista sighed and then looked around her, "Well I don't understand the topic of the conversation so please explain."

"Oops, sorry, I should have started by that." Diane grinned sheepishly before sending a pout towards Meliodas' direction, "I was saying that Elizabeth is so polite towards us, yet Captain is so impolite towards a princess! Elizabeth even said that since the first time he met her, he called her without honorifics already!"

"Diane! I said that I didn't mind it, calm down please!" Elizabeth tried to calm Diane down and Trista noticed the absence of the honorific 'sama' in the giantess' name, it seems that the two had grown closer compared to their previous relationship.

Trista raised an eyebrow at her words, "What the problem with it? I also called her simply 'Elizabeth' when I first met her."

"Eh?! You did?!"

"Yes, even Trista-san did Diane, so there is no problem!"

"There is!"

"Which are…?"

"E-Erm…"

"Well Meliodas is impolite towards everyone, he even calls the king of Liones by his first name."

"S-See?! Captain is the one in the wrong!"

"...Triss, either help me out or don't, choose one between them but stop doing both, it's disturbing. Besides, why am I the only one in the wrong when Triss is clearly worst than me?"

"BWAHAHAHA!"

"Seriously, what with those guys…" Hawk sweatdropped as he looked towards the group's conversation being developed like this. And after some further arguments…

"...I understand." Meliodas sighed and as if he resigned himself to something, decided to ignore the other and look only at Elizabeth, the latter felt herself blush under such an intense gaze, even the others stopped bickering and switched their attention only on them and observed their actions.

Meliodas then put his hand over his chest and bent himself a bit forward as he uttered the following words not in his usual easygoing way of speaking, but this time…

"I sincerely apologize for all the rudeness I presented you with up until this day, Your Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth."

"Eh…?" Elizabeth widened her eyes in shock at Meliodas's sudden change of attitude and tone, so did everyone else (Ban literally dropped his ale bottle and had his mouth wide open), even Trista but she soon narrowed her eyes in a wary glare towards Meliodas.

"N-No way, Cap'n of all people is being polite?!"

"I thought that he didn't even knew polite speech!"

Even though his fellow Sins were having rude thoughts voiced out about him, Meliodas didn't reacted to them at all and just kept his attention focused Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was probably the most flustered by that as she quickly raised her hands and waved them to show her denial, "P-Please Meliodas-sama, there is truly no need for you to—"

Meliodas just silently shook his head before closing his eyes, "No, my comrades were right. Taking account of our respective status, you are a princess of the royal family and even though I am no longer one, I used to be a Holy Knight serving your kingdom, therefore my attitude towards you should have been more formal, and yet…"

"M-Meliodas-sama…!" Elizabeth felt like crying, and definitely not out of joy. She never minded once Meliodas' informality towards her, or rather she was appreciating it, it felt refreshing that someone didn't saw her as the Third Princess of Liones, but rather just as 'simple Elizabeth', especially with how her relationship with Gilthunder and his friends became distant since the event of 10 years ago.

Besides for some reason… Meliodas just felt special. He was the one whom she wanted the least to hear her title from, he probably didn't knew how happy she felt each time he called her name, rather she didn't even understood it herself. Besides somewhere within her tell her that Meliodas never used honorifics when it came to her, and the fact that he just did now felt strangely unnatural, a feeling that she can't get used to and doesn't want to get used to.

She was about to beg him to stop, but then Meliodas suddenly opened his eyes, showing his usual perverted grin as he moved his hands in a groping movement as if he was grabbing the air, "May I request the authorization of massaging your chest?"

"...Eh?"

"IN THE END, IT COME TO THAT, HUH?!" Hawk immediately appeared and jumped to heatbutt Meliodas, making the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins fall backwards.

Trista just averted her eyes from the scene as she picked a meat skewer from her plate and bite into it, 'As expected, it come to that, huh…?' Her thoughts were strangely similar to Hawk's words.

He probably just wanted to tease Elizabeth with his usual perverted joies, he didn't truly mean it. It seems that the princess realized this too as she smiled in relief, Diane's scolding and Ban's laughter could also be heard.

Trista just raised her head upward as she looked at the night sky, 'Peaceful days would probably never come around them…' She noticed so.

Soon meteors started to fall through the night sky filled with stars at high-speed. It was a beautiful and colorful spectacle that would steal anyone's breath away, everyone were focused on it with awe. Unfortunately, Trista was aware that this breathtaking show didn't bring good news, and she was pretty sure that Meliodas was as aware of it as she was.


"Oi, Elizabeth. Where do you think you're going?"

"Eh…?" Elizabeth stopped walking up the stairs further as she turned to Meliodas with a confused look.

In late evening, the group composed of three members of the Seven Deadly Sins, a certain princess, a pseudo-witch and a talking pig decided to go back to the Boar Hat. Despite Dr. Dana's eagerness to let them stay at their clinic for another night to rest as a sign of gratitude, Meliodas refused for them insisting on the fact that they are in hurry for continuing their journey.

Well he may had accepted if Elizabeth's wounds were more severe but thanks to the magic tool that Trista used on her, all her wounds were healed and that only left the exhaustion caused by them. Thankfully, Elizabeth had recovered enough to avoid that.

But the main reason is that because the more long they get involved with civilians, the more they can be put in danger because of them, taking account of the Holy Knights' cowardly methods, the possibility that they try to take hostages against them isn't low. Of course as long they can save them it's alright, but no matter how strong you are not everything would go in the way you want.

When they reached the Boar Hat, it was already late in nighttime and taking count of everyone's exhausting day, the most logical thinking was that all of them should go rest since they already ate and starting business so late is impossible. So Elizabeth was about to go to her room but was stopped by Meliodas before she could reach it.

"Ban already took your room, you know?"

"Eh?" Indeed now that she thought about it, Ban did such a thing as throwing his terribly low amount of belongings onto her bed and declared this room to be his from now on.

"I-I see…? D-Does that mean that I would be sharing a room with Ban-sama from now on?" She never had a roommate who was a man before, perhaps Gilthunder and his friends when they were children…? She did recalled them being invited often to the castle to spend the night with the authorization of her father as the personal guards of her elder sisters. Well since Ban was tired she didn't mind to lend him her bed and sleep on the floor instead, but...

"Of course not." His response was immediate. For some reason, Meliodas' gaze on her felt really stern. It was rare for him to show her anything but a smile, and she felt slightly nervous about it, and not in a good way.

'...Did I upset him…?' She couldn't help but thinks so but no matter how she try to search through her memories, she can't recall what could be the trigger to it.

Instead Meliodas pointed the door behind him over his shoulder with his thumb, they were currently at the 2nd floor. "There's also my room."

"Eh? But then where will you sleep Meliodas-sama?"

"I'll use it too."

"But isn't there only a single bed?"

"It's a large double-bed so it should be fine."

"I see…" Elizabeth nodded in understanding and Meliodas seemed to be relieved that she finally understood, until…

"So Meliodas-sama and Ban-sama will be sharing a room, is it?"

...When she asked so with an innocent smile on her face, totally unaware of the gravity of her words, the world suddenly became silent and everything stood still. The princess didn't even realized the huge bomb she just dropped on them, and the worst is that she didn't meant anything bad with it.

*Crash!*

Elizabeth yelped when she heard a loud noise, she looked downward from the stairs and saw that Trista fell from her seat. Before she could rush over to her to check if she was alright, both Meliodas and Ban (who was supposed to be upward) were in front of her, blocking her (since when? She didn't even realized it).

And both in perfect unison…

""WHY SHOULD I EVEN SHARE A BED WITH ANOTHER MAN—?!""

...It was probably the most loud shout she ever heard from both of them (and also the first time that Meliodas ever raised his voice against her). For a moment, Elizabeth's vision turned white and a ringing sound went through her ears. It soon disappeared though, leaving her to deal with the two agited men in front of her.

(Diane outside woke up because of the noise before sleepily rubs her eyes and went back to sleep.)

"Princess, I don't wanna be rude, but is there something wrong with your head?"

Oh, Ban isn't speaking in a sing-song voice anymore.

"If I have to sleep with Ban then I'd rather sleep alone in the kitchen."

"Same here, so we're definitely not sleeping together!"

"I would even sleep outside rather than it!"

"Oh…" Elizabeth was even further confused, though she can understand the meaning of their words, she didn't understood the intention and why they were so desperate, what were they trying to do? What did they wanted to make her do?

At least they definitely won't share a room, so they would go in separate rooms but there is only one room by upper floor and there wouldn't be enough, so it can only mean that…

"I will go sleep outside with Diane, is it?"

""WRONG—!""

...Ah, she got denied again. And here she thought that she could keep company to Diane who whined about being the only one who slept outside.

"Why would you even go sleep outside with that exhausted body of yours? Besides it's not something that you can handle."

"No matter how we look about it, it's Cap'n and the princess who's sharing a room, right?!"

"Yep, it's the only solution allowed!"

"E-Eh? B-But…"

"And you're sharing the bed with me!"

"EEEHH?!" Before she could say anything else, Meliodas grabbed Elizabeth's hand and dragged her into their now shared room while the princess let out a flustered trail.

Hawk was speechless for a second before he quickly gasped and went after them, screaming 'What do you think you're doing, you swine?!'.

It only left Ban and Trista alone (who stood up from her lying position). Both stared blankly at the direction where Meliodas and Elizabeth (+ Hawk) went. Then after a small silence, Ban spoke as he put a hand on his forehead, "Cap'n has it rough, surprisingly"

"...I have no words to deny this." Trista answered as she sighed. 'Or perhaps those times can be considered as more peaceful than the usual…?'


Side Story 1 (THE END)


The light of the screen was turned off and it started to grow smaller. Lights were turned on and it showed a completely destroyed room with rubbles everywhere.

Hawk (impressed): "To think that Elizabeth-chan's clumsiness can be so destructive."

Elizabeth (tearful): "Uuh… I-I am sorry, everyone!"

Hawk: "Wah! Be careful!"

She bowed and almost hit her head against another furniture.

Meliodas: (smirk) "Well Elizabeth's clumsiness is also one of her cute side!"

Elizabeth (blush): "E-Eh? N-No way…"

Trista: "Too bad that it cannot be used as a weapon in the main story, it would have been terrific. Unexpected so it can take people by surprise, besides the addition of being defeated by such a clumsy move would deal a huge wound on our opponent's pride, especially if the other party is completely untrained."

Hawk: "You over there! Don't try to make Elizabeth-chan do dangerous things! Besides you two are also partially responsible for all that demolished stuff over there!"

Trista: "And so are you."

Hawk: "I-I was trying to stop you guys!"

Meliodas: "But you ended up making further damages."

Hawk: "Guh…! W-Why are you guys getting perfectly well just when you're berating me?!"

Trista (murmurs to the distance): "So the tragedy we started had been followed by Hawk and ended with Elizabeth, huh?"

Meliodas: "Yeah, she ended up achieving it with a bang!"

Elizabeth (shocked): "...?!"

Hawk: "D-DON'T SAY IT LIKE THAT…!"

Trista: "Well, the staff would clean this mess up later on."

Elizabeth: "Poor staff-san… can't we help them in any way or other…?"

Meliodas: "Then we ask Hawk to eat it?"

Hawk: "Even if I always eat your leftovers, there's no way I would eat those rubbles!"

Meliodas: "It's no good to be picky, Scraps Captain, besides we need to help other in need, don't we?"

Hawk: "Then start by cleaning this up with your own hands—!"

A few minutes later, off-screen…

Trista: "Anyway, we hope that you have enjoyed today's chapter, though not from the main story and it cannot be called as a side story either…"

Hawk: "You should have said that from the very beginning instead of wasting the time like this!"

Trista: "You were the one who started by commenting onto the damages Elizabeth caused."

Elizabeth (depressed): "Auuh…"

Hawk: "Stop it, the more you speak the more Elizabeth-chan is sad!"

Trista: "Even though it was your fault?"

Hawk: "Why is this my fault?!"

Meliodas: "There, there, Elizabeth, let me comfort you!"

*Boing, boing*

Elizabeth: "KYAAA!"

Hawk: "And you over there, don't take advantage of the situation to sexually harass Elizabeth-chan again!"

Trista: "Well ignoring them…"

Trista turned towards the spectators.

Trista: "We would like to thank once again all the readers who read this side story even, and especially the usual group of reviewers who had the kindness to review at each chapter, though the author had asked me to name them out I believe that they would without doubt be able to recognize themselves, and also another thanks for the new reviewers, you probably don't know how much it meant to the author. But there wouldn't be review corner in this chapter, it would be pushed in the next chapter of the main story. Please continue to support our main story's selves."

Meliodas: "By the way, aren't Ban and Diane, and also your mystery friend appear in this small corner?"

Trista: "They won't."

Meliodas, Elizabeth, Hawk: """...?!"""

Trista: "Or rather it isn't even confirmed that we, side story selves, would appear once again in the next side story chapter. We may just exist for this single chapter."

Meliodas, Elizabeth, Hawk: """...?!"""

Trista: "With that, goodbye everyone."

The curtains fell on the small theater(?), covering the frozen figures of the three others while the chibi-doll-girl bowed in farewell and waved before completely disappearing behind the curtains. And then the lights shut out, and…

Hawk: "DON'T END IT LIKE THAT—!"